The Sidney Central School District — located in Sidney, New York — has implemented a new 1-to-1 iPad Initiative for the 2013-14 school year, providing every child in the 7th through 12th grade with an iPad to work on.

iPads will be used in conjunction with learning management system, Schoology.

Both students and parents were asked to sign permission slips, which outline the expectations and policies for acceptable use.

According to a press release, teacher training on the new system has been ongoing for the past three years, and instruction will help move teaching to a more 21st century paradigm.

“In the past, when drawing atom structures, we’d use chalk and a chalkboard or a whiteboard,” says Mackenzie DeCocker, a seventh-grade Physics teacher. “It would take a tremendous amount of time. With the iPad, we learned to draw atoms in about five minutes.”

iPads provide other advantages too — such as the possibility of instant marking and feedback on quizzes.

“It’s great,” says one student. “It’s been a lot easier for me to get my notes for class. You don’t have to use a pen and paper.”

The school district used bulk pricing and educational aid to offset the cost of the iPads. The cost of one iPad is about the equivalent of five or six textbooks — although they can, of course, be used for far more varied applications.

This school is located in the city of Sidney, which is near the center of the US state of New York. Context is important.

Michael Breed

We’re doing a similar one-to-one program at a neighboring school district, the Chenango Valley Central School District. We’ve found iTunes U to be an invaluable tool for our teachers to disseminate information and materials to our students. I’d also recommend iBooks, Pages, and Notability as indispensable apps for the students to use.

About the author

Luke Dormehl is a UK-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems, And Create More and The Apple Revolution, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme, and other publications. He'd like you a lot if you followed him on Twitter.

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